Dutch Research University: Qualtrics to Formbricks Migration
The Challenge
A Dutch research university was paying EUR 120,000 per year for Qualtrics. The contract included mandatory 5% annual price increases and per-response pricing that was quietly discouraging large-scale studies — researchers were self-censoring survey scope to stay within budget.
The contract renewal was approaching. Procurement was reviewing alternatives. Then the Data Protection Officer raised a question that changed the conversation entirely.
Qualtrics is a US company. Under the US CLOUD Act (2018), US authorities can compel any US-headquartered company to hand over data stored anywhere in the world — including researcher survey data containing sensitive personal responses from European citizens. The university's GDPR compliance position was, at best, ambiguous.
The specific concerns:
| Issue | Impact | |-------|--------| | Annual cost | EUR 120K, growing 5% per year (5-year projection: EUR 660K) | | Per-response pricing | Researchers limiting study size to control costs | | CLOUD Act exposure | Survey data — often containing health, political, or personal information — accessible to US authorities | | Feature utilisation | University using approximately 20% of paid Qualtrics features | | Vendor dependency | Proprietary data formats, proprietary analysis tools, no self-hosting option |
The question was no longer "should we renew Qualtrics?" It was "can we justify renewing Qualtrics?"
The Approach
Aknostic was engaged to assess alternatives and build a migration path. The scope was deliberate: not a general market survey, but a focused evaluation of whether open-source survey tooling could meet the university's actual needs.
Week 1-2: Feature Utilisation Audit
We worked with research coordinators across four faculties to map actual Qualtrics usage. The findings were stark: the vast majority of researchers used link surveys, basic branching logic, NPS scales, and CSV export. The advanced features the university was paying for — conjoint analysis, advanced statistical modelling, API integrations — were used by fewer than 3% of active accounts.
Week 3: TCO Comparison
We built a five-year total cost of ownership model comparing three scenarios:
| Scenario | Year 1 | Year 5 | 5-Year Total | |----------|--------|--------|--------------| | Qualtrics (status quo) | EUR 120K | EUR 146K | EUR 663K | | Formbricks managed cloud | EUR 60K | EUR 60K | EUR 300K | | Formbricks self-hosted | EUR 45K | EUR 45K | EUR 225K |
Formbricks was the recommended alternative: a German company, AGPLv3-licensed, with enterprise survey capabilities — link surveys, in-app surveys, event-triggered surveys, NPS, CSAT — and native integrations with tools the university already used. Critically, it could be self-hosted on European infrastructure.
We presented the business case to IT leadership and the research council in a joint session. The numbers spoke for themselves.
The Solution
The university chose self-hosted Formbricks on European infrastructure. Aknostic provided the platform engineering and migration support. The constraint was clear: no disruption to active research studies, and researchers needed to be productive on the new platform within one training session.
Phase 1 — Infrastructure and Pilot (Month 1-2)
Formbricks deployed on European infrastructure via Kubernetes and Helm charts. PostgreSQL for data storage. Apache Superset configured for research coordinators who needed dashboard-style reporting beyond Formbricks' built-in analytics.
Three research groups volunteered as pilot users — chosen because they had active studies with manageable scope. Their existing Qualtrics surveys were recreated in Formbricks. Researchers ran both platforms in parallel for two weeks, validating that response collection, branching logic, and data export worked as expected.
Pilot feedback was positive. The most common reaction: "This does everything we actually use Qualtrics for."
Phase 2 — Faculty-Wide Rollout (Month 2-4)
Rollout proceeded faculty by faculty. Each faculty received a half-day training session — not a lecture, but a hands-on workshop where researchers rebuilt one of their own surveys in Formbricks. Active Qualtrics surveys were migrated at natural completion points rather than mid-study.
The per-response pricing removal had an immediate effect: two research groups expanded planned studies that had been scoped down for budget reasons.
Phase 3 — Qualtrics Decommission (Month 5)
By month five, all active surveys were running on Formbricks. Historical Qualtrics data was exported and archived. The Qualtrics contract was not renewed.
The Handoff
From month two onward, we ran structured knowledge transfer sessions with the university's IT team. Each session covered a specific operational domain: Formbricks upgrades via Helm, PostgreSQL backup and restore procedures, user management, and Superset dashboard administration.
By month four, the IT team was handling day-to-day operations independently. Aknostic remained available for escalation support during the first full semester on the new platform.
The IT team has since extended the platform with additional integrations — connecting Formbricks to the university's research data management system — without external support.
Outcomes
| Metric | Qualtrics | Formbricks | |--------|-----------|------------| | Annual cost | EUR 120K (growing 5%/yr) | EUR 45K (stable) | | 5-year projection | EUR 663K | EUR 225K | | Per-response pricing | Yes (limits study size) | No (unlimited) | | Data jurisdiction | US (CLOUD Act applies) | European infrastructure (GDPR compliant) | | Source code | Proprietary | AGPLv3 (open source) | | Vendor dependency | High (proprietary formats, no self-hosting) | Low (self-hosted, data portable) | | Researcher autonomy | Constrained by budget and licensing | Unlimited surveys, unlimited responses |
EUR 75K annual savings. 62% cost reduction. Full European data sovereignty. No disruption to active research. Five months start to finish.
Lessons Learned
Three things we would emphasise for similar engagements:
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Pilot with willing research groups first. Enthusiastic early adopters become internal advocates. Their positive experience made faculty-wide rollout significantly easier — researchers trust peer recommendations over IT department announcements.
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Feature gap analysis matters more than feature comparison. Qualtrics has hundreds of features. The university used a fraction of them. Comparing feature lists would have made the migration look risky. Comparing actual usage made it look obvious.
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Researcher training is the real migration cost, not infrastructure. The Kubernetes deployment took days. Getting 2,800 researchers comfortable with a new survey tool took months. Budget time and attention accordingly.
For a deeper analysis of Qualtrics pricing, CLOUD Act implications, and the case for open-source survey infrastructure, read Qualtrics' Marketing Plays You for a Fool on Clouds of Europe.